MY FIRST SNAKE THIS YEAR!!!

 

I went out early this morning to finish the exit ramp from I-76 to Main Street.  Only the top third was left to clean.  I hesitated yesterday, asking Tom if maybe we could finish, and he said there was a lot more trash up there than it looked.  Understatement!

I picked up 3,093 pieces of trash today!  And under a piece of cardboard, I found my first snake this year!  Yikes!  I screamed like a girl, but that's okay, because I am a girl.

I was about ready to give it up for today, and then I decided I wasn't going to let a little snake scare me away.  I was, however, worried about the rest of his family!  Mom, dad, big brother, you know.  

Before this, every weed that touched my leg caused me to jump and look for ticks.  Now I could add snakes to my list of pests to look out for.

The next time I picked up a piece of cardboard, I was ready for the snake, and it was there.

Do  you realize what this means?  If we let trash lay around in our yards, and on our entrance and exit ramps, we are giving snakes a wonderful place in which to breed and thrive!

I'm not on board with that.  Are you?  Let's get out there and pick up trash!  Let's keep our communities clean!

This is the top third of the entrance ramp.  

You can't believe all the plastic I picked up here.  Garbage bags, grocery bags, tarps, shipping material, and of course, water bottles.  If these things aren't picked up, they don't go away.  That's why there was so much.

What a difference it makes to pick up all the garbage people toss from their cars.  And they don't throw trash out mindlessly.  They have to roll down their window to do that.

This trash isn't from homeless people, or little kids, or the garbage truck missing trash.  It's from adults exiting the freeway.

Crazy stuff like this.  

Somebody stuffed their NutraGrain bar wrapper in their water bottle.  While they're driving?  Seriously?

Did this person think they were helping by throwing away only one piece of litter instead of two?

And how about this?  

There was a dozen grocery store bags inside another grocery story bag!  Are you kidding?  I could have used those bags to clean up after my dogs!

Again, did that person think throwing away one bag of bags was better than 13 bags blowing around on the freeway?  They couldn't make it home to put them in their trash can?

Here are all the trash bags Tom and I filled yesterday and today.   I'll ask Keep Akron Beautiful to pick them up tomorrow.  

They are really doing a wonderful job picking up the trash bags that are too much for me to dispose of.

Thank you so much!